Read The Infinity Brigade #1 Stone Cold for Free Online

Ramirez’s squad… sending them to medical and continuing on with the other half of the platoon with myself and the corporal. That wouldn’t work now. While half the platoon was enough to carry the bridge; it would not be enough to carry the bridge and provide sniper cover. I needed a new plan.
    “Jesus!” I yelled while trying to find him on my HUD.
    “Over here, Sir.”
    “Grab Jones and Westin… pick up McDullis and head over to medical. As soon as medical is done with you double time it back to whatever our current position is. Hand your Corporal stripes to the next group of four with the same orders.”
    “You’re demoting me already?”
    “Negative. I’m just shuffling my NCOs to get the mission accomplished. If you can avoid screwing up too badly you’ll get your stripes back by the end of the day.”
    I knew based on the instructions I had received regarding the time it would take to process each of the soldiers through medical that it was going to be tight getting all of my platoon through before the exercise ended. That said, it was a good plan. It could work if everything went smoothly. Translation: I had zero expectation that things would go smoothly and that I would be successful with the current plan.
    The problem was, I had two things stacked against me… well three if you counted the sadistic Drills that were intent on throwing up obstacle after obstacle. First, no plan ever survived contact with the enemy and second, the only member of my platoon I could absolutely count on to perform as expected was a guy named Murphy.
    We got to within two klicks of our destination before we ran into our next problem. There was an electric fence between us and our destination. Now understand, we had just been on this chunk of real estate thirty minutes ago and I can assure you… there was no electric fence.
    “JJ go take a team of two and check that out. The rest of you drop your load and start scanning the area. I can’t believe this is anything other than a trap.”
    No sooner had the words left my mouth then the first kinetic rounds started hitting the dirt near us. One hit a rock near my hand and shattered. A metal shard managed to penetrate the Kevlar weave of my protective training BDU. It put a hole in my arm. It felt like someone had stuck a hot poker in my bicep.
    “HOLY MOTHER OF SAINT JUDE!” I bellowed in pain. It was the hand I held my toy-pointer with so I was forced to use my other hand instead.
    I grabbed a nanite squish-pack out of my belt pack and tore the top off with my teeth. I squeezed the contents into the wound. Fortunately the nanites I had received earlier as part of my time at the MEPS had already started to ease the pain and seal the wound. There was blood everywhere but such were the fortunes of war.
    “JJ Report!”
    “It seems to be run of the mill electric fence. We should be able to cut the wires and pull it down.”
    “Make it happen Sergeant. We are burning daylight here.”
    The rest of the day was a blur. We managed to get the bridge to its drop-off point but we were three minutes late. That cost us a hundred and fifty pushups. We got the entire platoon to medical in the required time… except for a guy named Ensign Stone.
    Drill Sergeant Baldwin started to verbally administer a dress down that could easily strip the paint off the walls when she noticed the blood on my arm… and leg… and chest. I had been so preoccupied with everything that was going on I hadn’t noticed the other shrapnel wounds I had received.
    Now to be fair, several of our guys got winged but they had gotten the nanite treatments. So they were good to go a few minutes after their nanites got to work. Senior Drill Sergeant Harris looked me up and down. I did my best to stand at attention but damn I was tired.
    “Ensign remove your BDU Blouse,” Harris ordered.
    I did although I had to admit I was somewhat stiff. It had been a rough day and there were still quite a few hours of daylight left